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The Epsilon Effect
|image = |caption = |companies = *Hexion Entertainment (developer, publisher, distributor) |people = |series = Epsilon Effect |langs = *Lua *AngelScript |engine = Urho3D |tools = |platforms = Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Unix, Berkeley Software Distribution, Haiku, BeOS, AmigaOS, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Mad Box, PlayStation 4 Digital download only Wii U, Atari VCS |release = |genre = *Third-person action-adventure role-playing *Dungeon crawler *Hack and slash *Relationship building, dating sim |modes = Single-player, multiplayer }} is an in-development, 3D hack-and-slash action-adventure role-playing game developed and published by Hexion Entertaintment, planned to release for PC and various consoles. It uses the anime artstyle. 'Story' is set in the year 2021. A few years prior in 2008, researchers discover an unusual cosmic radiation they believe "does not come from this world"; a scientific experiment on this energy conducted by the Confederal Agency of Scientific Solutions (CASS) goes wrong and spreads the (mostly harmless) radiation across the world. The force seems to mostly affect children, teenagers and young adults. This radiation is first described by doctor Johan Wenkins, who links the Greek letter ε to it, dubbing the radiation as "Epsilon". Research is then further conducted by Japanese authorities. This "Epsilon" force seems to mysteriously link those affected to a cosmic force that grants them unusual, supernatural abilities. These abilities were classified in two categories: "Thumoghe", which refers to "general" powers that many kids can have, and "Henahki", which is a rare and special power mostly unique to one individual, unless copied or swapped. One's Thumaghe and Henahki are both based on their blood type, which also generally determines the morality of the child — Pure Light (true hero), Light, Halflight (Anti-Hero), Neutral, Semidark (Anti-Villain), Dark and Pure Dark (true villain of pure evil). Additionally, various kids have more than one Thumoghe and / or Henahki. As soon as this information becomes public, the adults and elderly start distrusting the youth. The CASS is highly interested in the kids, but not for good; rather profit. CASS chairman and CEO O.B. Haklyn starts ordering kidnappings of kids from their homes and heavily experiments on them, seeking to somehow drain and use their powers. He also sells and auctions these kids to governments and terrorist groups as super-soldiers, looking to gain as much profit as possible. Through the Dark Web, Haklyn uses an API to create a list of all affected kids worldwide that contains all of their personal information. Main character Travis is forced to leave his home, family and friends when he is selected by Haklyn as their next "product" to be dealt to the highest bidder. A day after Travis leaves, Haklyn visits his relatives and tries to find out where Travis is, but doesn't get any information out of them. Once outside, Haklyn commands his officers to initiate "Code 23". Code 23 is the CASS's heartbreaking way of taking children: murder all of the child's friends and family members, then adopt them when no one else can legally look after them (and if needed, initiate Amber alerts to track the child down to make sure they can't escape anywhere). Hours later, CASS officers visit his relatives claiming to have found Travis heavily injured and in need of medical help. They lure his family and friends to a fake hospital where they are all shot in the back of the head. With no one remaining that can care for him, CASS iniates an Amber alert to track down Travis, which leaves him with no options other than to cross the border to Canada. There, in Toronto, Travis is found by Thomas Hensey, who looks after him from that point on. A few weeks after Travis's arrival, his neighbourhood comes under attack by Dark kids, who wreak havoc. Travis witnesses them robbing and preparing to sexually molest a girl whom they cornered against a wall. He unleashes his Thumaghe of terrakinesis to knock the boys away with cobblestone he erects from the floor and scares them off. The girl introduces herself as Kira and thanks Travis for helping her, even hugging him. She reveals to also be under effect of Epsilon and that she has various friends whom also have powers. Travis tags along and quickly becomes friends with the group, excluding Han, with whom he starts off at the wrong foot. Several Dark kids continue their rampage through Toronto, prompting Travis and his friends to fight back and keep the peace. But when the CASS makes their way to Toronto and an inhuman threat unleashes itself from the shadows, all hell breaks loose. Gameplay General Above everything else, is an action-adventure RPG. The player usually controls just Travis, or Travis and one extra character, in the Hub World, but controls a party of up to four characters in the Field, where enemies can initiate battles with the Player if they are near. In the hub, Travis can talk to NPCs, buy goods in shops and take quests and missions. In the Field, enemies walk around and will charge at the player's party if they notice them, iniating battle. The player can get extra time to rack damage by sneaking up on an enemy from behind or while they are occupied / distracted. By default, each character has four Categories of attacks they can use in battle: Physical, Weapon, Thumoghe and Henahki. Physical strikes include stuff like eg. punches, kicks, grabs/throws and elbow bashes; while fast, they don't usually deal a lot of damage excluding Throws, which take long to execute and leave the player's character wide open to damage. Thumoghe attacks run by EP ("Epsilon Points". Experience is shortened as XP to avoid confusion) which functions mostly identical to MP ("Magic Points", "Mana Points") and SP ("Skill Points", "Special Points") from other RPGs. Henahki skills run by a cooldown. By taking and dealing damage, an "Ultimate" bar will fill which when full, allows one character execute a "Super Strike", an exceptionally powerful attack. Once used, the bar is empty again. Additionally, the player must also watch a "Stamina" bar that only appears when the player is in battle, and slowly depletes as the player uses the character for extended time. As the bar depletes, the character will be slower (including in response to button / key / mouse inputs), their attacks will be weaker and they will take more damage. The bar steadily recharges by itself if the player doesn't attack for a while, uses another character or is not in battle (outside of battle, the bar charges slower than when not attacking with the character in battle). If the bar is empty, the character will fall asleep on the ground due to overexertion until their bar — which recharges by itself when this happens, albeit slower — is fully charged again. This mechanic was implemented to encourage players to use all characters mostly equally, to introduce a dangerous gameplay mechanic that requires strategy to bypass, and to somewhat mimic realism. Battles are not turn-based but real-time, where both the player characters and enemies may act at any given time. The player can only control one character at a time, but may swap to any other character when desired unless the character they wish to swap to is unconscious (all HP depleted), sleeping (Stamina bar empty or as a Status Effect), has a certain Status Effect (Frozen, Dizzy, Sleeping, Petrified, Burning), is being controlled by an enemy character (Hypnosis, Brainwashed or Possessed effect) or acts upon themselves (Confused, Blind or Joker effect). The player can also opt to run, with the exception of bosses and certain other scripted fights. Relationships has a large emphasis on social contact and relationships, many of which can greatly affect the story of the game. For example, as mentioned before, Travis and Han don't get along at first. The player can opt to try to settle their beef with Han, which will cause him to trust Travis and become more of a friend. They can also instead leave it as it is and do no effort to make up; doing this will lead to Han betraying Travis and his friends later on and becoming a villain. This way, there are several different ways the game can end. Some main characters can even die depending on player actions; for example, if Han turns against the player and starts killing innocent children, Kira will ask wether the player would mind her trying to reason with Han peacefully. If the player agrees, Han will murder Kira, after which she is removed from the party. This in turn leads to Jess, Kira's girlfriend, detesting Travis over this, and she will refuse to give him certain necessary items she would normally supply near the end of the game, forcing the player to take different actions. In contrast to the "roguelike" RPG genre however, permanent death in only occurs depending on the player's actions, and never as a result of being defeated in battle. Another aspect of this multi-ending nature is Travis ending up in a romantic relationship with certain playable girls. Not all of them can be dated however (for example, Kira is lesbian and has no romantic interest in boys, wherea Céline "Shy" is three years older than Travis and already taken). Each girl that can fall in love with Travis has her own scenes and ending with him. Some girls are harder to "get" than others. For example, Bella starts off very timid and socially awkward; if the player makes certain wrong choices, she will feel uncomfortable around Travis and avoid him. Some girls can also dislike Travis as a result of screw-ups which gradually makes it less and less likely they will develop feelings for him. Lauren fears that she might hurt those who love her, and is very strict for herself. It is highly important that the player makes almost perfect choices to get closer to her. On the contrary, certain other girls are very social, and can easily fall in love. The player is continually advised by the game's hints to try to reach as many different endings as possible. Once all major endings have been reached once, the player unlocks a True Ending. Characters Travis Travis is your all-around jack of all trades. *Full Name: Travis Jay Kinney *Gender: Male *Age: 14 *Nationality: American *Personality: Heroic and with a strong sense of ju— well okay, he's basically just your stereotypical "all-goodie" hero character. *Class: General *Weapon: Sword *Thughome: Earth-bending *Henahki: Barrier of Hope — Creates an invisible field that blocks projectiles and bounces off enemies, but lets friends through. *Super Strike: ... *Starting HP: 680. Bella Bella is one of the most powerful kids out there — She has significantly more Thumoghes than most other kids have, or should have, and can levitate very fast. However, despite her potent set of fearful powers, Bella lacks the physicality and running speed the others do, and is the most fragile member of Travis's crew. Bella works best attacking from a distance and should be kept at a safe distance from heavy hitters. *Full Name: Isabel "Bella" Sun *Gender: Female *Age: 13 *Nationality: Chinese-Canadian *Personality: Bella starts off as somewhat reclusive, very timid and with light issues connecting to other people. She has a short temper and initially only helps Travis and friends because of the threat imposed by Hwyis. Depending on player choices, she will eventually become warmer towards the main characters, and open up to Travis. *Class: Goddess *Weapon: Sword *Passive: Has a 20% chance to not be affected by a certain status effects *Thughome #1: Forcefield Creation *Thughome #2: Electrokinesis *Thughome #3-?: ... (Tba later) *Henahki: ... *Super Strike: ... *Starting HP: 440 *Excels In: Magic, Magical Strength, Speed (during levitation), Range, Status Resistance *Downs: Physical Strength, Speed (on foot), Durability, Stamina, HP Shy Shy is an excellent artist, and while initially bashful, she later opens up to Travis crew and maintains an enthousiast, yet jumpy attitude from then on. She specializes in healing and support, but can just as well pack a punch using her Epsilon powers. Shy can't be dated; she is already in love. *Full Name: Céline Dupont *Gender: Female *Age: 17 *Nationality: French *Personality: Shy and short-tempered, but tender and frisky near those she feels good with *Class: Healer *Weapon: ? (Tbd) *Thumaghe #1: Dejuv Purha — Diffuses purple energy blasts from her handpalms. *Thumaghe #2: Rejuv Purha — Heals others by 365 HP per use. *Thumaghe #3: Ampliboost — Temporarily makes target faster and take less damage. *Henahki: ... *Super Strike: Purha Ultimate — Creates a massive explosion of purple energy that heals 45% of all party members' HP, wakes up sleeping or unconscious heroes, removes all negative status effects from them and boosts their stats. All enemies caught in the blast are dealt 1300 damage and will temporarily be Blind. *Starting HP: 900 *Excels In: Healing, Durability, Magic, HP *Downs: Physical Strength Kira Kira is the first person Travis connects with in this adventure, although she is lesbian and as such can't be dated (she will kindly reject his advances if Travis confesses to her). She is always very frisky, cheery and enthousiast, and this happy-go-lucky atitude often warms up her friends so much, they grow stronger. Her powers mostly revolve around bending space. *Full Name: Kira Keolis *Gender: Female *Age: 15 *Nationality: Canadian *Personality: Always happy, cheery, upbeat and frisky. She always makes those around her smile, just by being there. Kira is always in for fun and some good laughs. *Class: Swordswoman *Weapon: Twin Katanas *Passive: Frisky Heart — Friends run lightly faster, have a 10% chance to deal double damage and have a low chance to remain stuck at 1 HP after taking an attack that would've defeated them, with the next four attacks dealing no damage. The fifth attackn if it connects, will defeat the character. *Thumaghe #1: Portal creation *Thumaghe #2: Telekinesis, in the form of gravity manipulation *Thumaghe #3: Cheer — Increases attack power of friends by 35% *Thumaghe #4: ... *Henahki: ... *Super Strike: Final Horizon — Creates a black hole that continually damages enemies caught in the radius for 8 seconds. Enemies with under 835 HP when the attack is iniated will be one-shot. *Starting HP: 760. *Excels In: Physical Strength, Speed *Downs In: Durability, Range Status Effects "Bad" status effects are divided in four categories in the game: Impair (eg. lowers player stats or effectiveness / probability of certain effect), Incapacitation (Leave the character unable to be controlled by the user; eg. stunned, sleeping, petrified), Behavioural (Character acts upon themselves or is controlled by the enemy) and Detrimental (damages the character). Incapacitation *'Sleeping:' The character falls asleep on the ground as a result of either enemy attacks, or by their Stamina bar being empty. If due to the latter, the character only wakes up when their Stamina bar has refilled. If an enemy has lulled them to sleep, the character will awaken after either a pre-set time limit or after a randomized time limit between two pre-defined numbers, depending on the attack. While sleeping, characters can't be damaged by enemies. On Easy Difficulty at all times, or on any difficulty through the Sound Rest perk (gained by leveling up), characters will also gradually recover HP as they rest. *'Dizzy:' The character is dizzy and will stumble around randomly. They can still be damaged by enemy attacks. *'Petrified:' The character is turned to stone (General), gold (Chrysopoeia) or silver (Argentopoeia) and is completely unable to move. Character never heals by themselves. The process of un-petrifying can be sped up by attacks against them from party members, although this will deplete their HP on Hard Difficulty. *'Frozen:' Almost identical to Petrified, but with a twist. The character will start taking damage after a while (Easy and Normal) or as soon as they are frozen (Hard) and eventually pass out from exposure, which will unfreeze the character but cause them to fall unconscious as soon as they break out. On Easy and Normal difficulty, the character will eventually break out by themselves. On Hard mode, it is required that another character thaws them out, which will also deplete their HP. *'Heavy Strike:' An effect that a character can receive after a heavy pounce in the gut or on the head. It causes them to drop to their knees and become temporarily uncontrollable by the player. The character has a 50% chance to instantly lose all of their HP while stunned and fall unconscious. Behavioural *'Burning:' The character's back will be burning and make them frantically run around randomly while continually taking damage. Any character or enemy the character touches will also catch fire. Eventually wears off by itself, but can be ended instantly by Water attacks. *'Hypnosis:' The character is under an enchantment curse and will initially stand still, but attack any party member who comes near them. The character will eventually start walking about. Friendly fire from another party member has a 8% chance to snap them out of the spell. *'Brainwashed:' Identical to Hypnosis, except that the character will actively seek out other party members and attack them. *'Possessed:' Identical to Brainwashed, except the character's health will also deplete over time, and the enemy inhabits their body. Friendly Fire is required to remove the enemy from the character's body and back into the Battlefield. The character will take less overall damage than normal and a few consecutive hits usually suffice to remove the effect. *'Blind:' Character will stumble around and attack at random. These attacks can affect both enemies and party members. *'Confused:' Character will act upon themselves without player input. They will either attack the enemies or the player's party. *'Joker:' The character will go completely berserk and attack both enemies and the party members. On Easy difficulty, the character will patrol at random and only attack those nearby, like Hypnosis. On Normal and Hard, the character will actively seek out all characters and enemies in the battlefield. *'Afraid:' Character will fear the enemies and run, hover or teleport away from them until the effect ends. If the attack one-shots the character, nearby party members have a chance of receiving the Effect as well. *'Blind Fury:' A variation of the Rage effect documented below. If a character witnesses a party member faint or receive a Heavy Strike, they have a 3-8% chance of losing themselves. Their strength and speed receive tremendous boosts, but their Durability and Magical Defense drop by a huge amount too. The character can't be controlled and will blindly attack enemies, starting with the one who injured or defeated the party member. Detrimental *'Poison:' The character can be controlled as usual, but will take damage over time. *'Sick:' Similar to Poison, but goes paired with a stat drop. *'Nauseous:' Similar to Sick, but characters have a 5% chance to fall asleep. On Hard Mode, both Sick and Nauseous can spread to other party members if they are very close by. Poison cannot. Impair *'ATK / DUR / SPEED / MATK / MDEF / TMG / HNK Down:' Lowers the stat in question. Miscellaneous *Electric attacks have a minor 3.5% (Easy), 7% (Normal) or 14% (Hard) chance to instantly knock a character unconscious. This comes paired with a unique animation. *'Rage:' Has a 4-13% chance of affecting a character when they witness a party member faint or receive a Heavy Strike. The character becomes stronger and faster, but their Durability and Magical Defense receive serious drops, allowing them to be defeated more easily. Unlike Blind Fury, the character can still be controlled. Planned Ideas *Upon request by user; a demonic assassin based off Rin#0128 who has a 2% chance to appear at random. He is incredibly powerful and can whoop-ass the player's party with relative ease if they are underleveled. Rin drops powerful loot if the player manages to beat him. **Equipped with a powerful Dagger and Bow that he may drop if beaten Category:Games